Let's buy an iPad at Walmart

Guess I'm a little technologically (sp). Could someone please tell me what an ipad does? Is it like an e reader, like the Kindle or the Nook?

Wal Mart SUCKS. Good place for Tea Baggers to shop.

Wal-Mart is a cool store, I do most of my shopping there. They have everything I need, the prices are great and the stores are clean. You low-lifes that don't shop there, we don't want you. Pay more for you Chinese stuff at another store.

BEWARE OF APPLIANCES IN WALMART ARE CHEAP AND POOR QUALITY.
THEY ONLY HAVE 15 DAYS TO RETURN WHIT RECEIPT.

Why do we need a Ipad? An Ipatch would draw more comments and way cooler.

I'll wait until the Ipad comes to our local Walmart. Despite all the flak always being hurled at WalMart, it provides a really important service to those of us struggling to make ends meet. I have yet to find better prices anywhere else.

But I have another concern. And it's privacy. This board is providing a hyperlink under your display name which links to a "profile" containing all the letters you've ever written to any of dozens of AOL and AOL affiliate sites. An archive which is accessible to anyone clicking onto your name.

Sound invasive? It is. Because we aren't informed when we write that first letter to any of these sites, that a "profile" is automatically created linking your email to the profile. And your real name may be on that profile if you naively put it in the "name" blank deviously placed beside the "email" link.

Even if you later adopt a "display" name it will link back to the original name and profile. AND worse yet. Google may pick it up and your unauthorized profile will appear all over the WorldWideWeb. Be wary and careful.

All this I-stuff is a bunch of I-Junk that I-Don'tNeed and if I-Don'tBuy means I-SaveMoney!!!

"Surely there are customers without access to an Apple Store or Best Buy who do have a Walmart in town."

I'm one of them. That's where I got my iPhone 3GS, because the AT&T store couldn't afford the insurance necessary to stock the units.

Having iPads available for sale in this remote little corner of the world would be a rather nice thing indeed.

We can all complain about Wal-Mart, but consider the near slavery conditions in the Chinese manufacturing plants all our wonderful iGadgets are made in.

@Dave Caolo

"It seems to me that Apple would hardly need the push that a spot in Walmart would offer. Apple managed to move 1 million units in less than a month, and stock is still limited online and at Best Buy and Apple retail locations."

To focus on limited supplies of iPads today is short sighted, myopic and inaccurate as a predictor of the future.

Walmart says they expect to be selling the iPad later this year. I would interpret that as the last quarter of calendar 2010.

Long before that, Apple will probably have solved the supply situation.
They have to do that not only for US sales but also to meet the demand for iPads in the new countries being added in June and thereafter and for the last quarter of this year.

Apple wants to sell as many iPads as it can as soon as possible.
By adding Walmart (and possibly other sellers) it opens the visibility and sales of iPads to many people who don't have access to or don't shop at an Apple store or Best Buy.

By selling a huge number of iPads in 2010 Apple takes all of those buyers out of the market for any erstwhile 2011 competitor.

The more iPads sold the more money Apple and developers make.
Customers become evangelists and beget other customers. The sale of iPads and apps motivates existing developers to develop additional apps and/or update current apps, and attracts new developers.

If Apple can run away with the market and have a market share like their iPod market share they conquer another category. If they get a huge head start they can rule the market and make any other company think twice about entering the market or put those who do enter into a wanna be copy cat status. Many buyers will prefer the original.

All of this makes stockholders happy as Apple (AAPL) shares rise.